


Music to Explore Space to

by SrebrnaFH



Series: Double Pride Double Trouble - series [14]
Category: Das doppelte Lottchen | Lottie and Lisa - Erich Kästner, Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Genre: Astronauts, Future, Future Fic, Good Omens References, STEM, Songfic after a fashion, Space Exploration, Stargate References, To Touch The Stars - album, Women in Armed Forces, women in STEM
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 15:08:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29719047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SrebrnaFH/pseuds/SrebrnaFH
Summary: Bennet girls have been expected to be better, and smarter and one day to go further than anyone else.
Series: Double Pride Double Trouble - series [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1273559
Comments: 8
Kudos: 11





	Music to Explore Space to

**Author's Note:**

> This is the last DPDT story and I must warn you it is... quite different from the others, when it comes to the theme and tone.
> 
> I advise you to listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1GNiEbOgo0 before you read it (it will set up some background).

2001-09-30, London

_Four and a half billion years ago_

_(That was way before your birth)_

_A watery planet spun through the cosmos._

_We have come to call it Earth._

"Elizabeth! What the hell is this racket! Turn it off this instant!"

She jerked up at her father's sudden appearance and shout.

"Dad, that's just music, I wanted to..."

"This is not music, this is some... wailing. You'd do better to study or at least practice the piano."

"But I just wanted to..."

"It's not as important as studying and working on your thesis. Without good grades, you will amount to nothing. Do you think Margaret Hamilton was listening to stupid music when she calculated the Apollo flight? I'm sure not."

"But, Dad...!"

He turned and left her bedroom without another word.

Elizabeth flopped to her back, looking morosely at the ceiling. She was leaving to join Jane up north in a week and she would have been more than happy to already be there. Not that the potential of unsupervised social life seemed in any way alluring to her, but the chance to live with her favourite sister - even if the place was also occasionally visited by Jane's boyfriend - was the most attractive aspect. Jane's placement in Yorkshire was only temporary, but three years would be more than enough for Elizabeth to have the thesis done; and under the tutoring of one professor Dunley, a renown AI specialist, she was optimistic about her chances. Sheffield University was maybe not the best or largest but had some definitely interesting teachers on the payroll. And this was hard to beat.

She ejected the CD from the player and popped it back into its case.

"I think Margaret Hamilton did listen to music," she informed the empty room. "Because she doesn't seem like a sourpuss who would avoid some light entertainment."

The room remained silent, now that "What if we had no Moon" was no longer filling it.

She dropped the CD in her bag with a sigh.

At least Jane rarely complained about her music choices.

####

2004-10-19, London

_Tidal forces cause the Moon_

_To slowly pull away_

_To where it_ _’s 234,000 miles_

_From us today._

_And just in case you_ _’re wondering,_

_234,000 miles is 376,587 kilometres._

_(Someday you may need that for a science quiz)._

"What are these?"

Elizabeth hefted the bag with Mina's clothes onto her shoulder and turned to face Mary.

"Ah, my CDs. Let them stay here, maybe we'll fetch them later. Mom and Dad rarely throw anything out, so I think they'll be safe. Not like I don't have all the mp3s on my hard drive anyway."

Mary pushed the box further into the lowest shelf.

"Let's just make sure nobody decides they are in the way."

They made their way downstairs, to Lizzy's car, and drove swiftly, carrying baby Mina, clothes, and Elizabeth's broken heart away, towards Mary's dorm.

####

2017-06-03, London

_So day slowly lengthens from a brief_

_Four hours to twenty-four._

_Brand new life forms keep evolving_

_On the ocean floor._

"Wilhelmina Charlotte Bennet! Turn this off this instant, it's impossible to think with you playing this... what even is this?"

Mina looked up from where she was sitting on the floor.

"Some old CDs. Mom asked me to check if all of them are still good, so, I'm checking."

"Be quieter about it. And do it quicker, for heaven's sake. They don't give you grades for listening to the music, child. You have to study."

"I've already passed all my early exams..."

"And got only a B in maths. A B! Do you think Helen Sharman ever got a B in maths?"

Mina grimaced at the volume her grandfather produced.

"I don't even know her," she mumbled. "What do I care?"

"Well, you should, if you are ever going to beat her."

"I'm not beating anyone!"

"That's not what your school record says, now is it? What was it this year, one boy, two? You'd do better to focus on learning something useful and not being so emotional about everything."

Mina drew a breath and paused, holding back the tears.

Grandpa left, leaving her annoyed and somewhat disappointed with the older generation. Just somewhat.

She was _used_ to that kind of comments about schooling, but that didn't mean she was overly _enamoured_ with them.

At least the camp was starting in a month, so she would be out there, free, no family hovering over her and telling her what a disappointment she was. Downside was, no Mom... But hey, a new experience. Maybe there would be a person or two worth talking to out there.

####

2017-11-11, Pemberley

_And millions and millions and millions of years go by._

_Nothing stays the same._

_The Moon gets all the credit;_

_The Moon gets all the blame._

"And what's this?"

Jane shrugged.

"It's just Lizzy's stuff from our parents' place. When we were there last time, Mary and I decided to have a look at her old room and Mary identified some of Lizzy's things, left there when she was, you know. Living with our parents when Mina was little."

William grimaced. He didn't enjoy being reminded about that time in their lives, but it was definitely better to have these things away from the elder Bennet's place. He could only hope they would not bring Elizabeth any painful memories.

"OK. Let's put it in the library for now, keep it out of sight. She will deal with them once she has time."

Jane handed him a box of CD cases and a bag of old books.

"Let's get this inside before she comes up from the kitchen and catches us."

####

2021-09-24, Bennet Residence, London

_The Moon_ _’s gravity pull keeps the Earth’s tilt_

_At a constant twenty-three degrees,_

_Keeps our seasons stable_

_(We don_ _’t fry or freeze)._

"What are you drawing, Evelyn?"

She glanced up at her grandma, who was leaning over the table, a plate of cake in her shaky hand extended towards her.

"Noffin," she mumbled. "Repeating the times table."

Times table was resisting being repeated. Every time she tried to write it out and then checked it, the result was a bit different and she just... She just wanted to _do it_ finally. At least once she wanted to get the same result twice.

Mommy was worrying and Daddy was trying to help her with it, but nothing they said made sense or helped. So, she sat with her notebook and wrote out the table again and again, trying to Get It.

"What are you up to now? Twenty by twenty?"

Grandpa. Ugh.

"Ten by ten," she sighed into her book.

Evelyn hadn't wanted to come to the End of Summer thing of grandma's, but Jackie _did,_ and Bella wanted to see grandma's garden again, and they were the ones watching Evelyn that afternoon, so they ruled that she had to come with them. And it was loud, and it was annoying, and she _still_ had her maths assignment and it _still_ had to be done, so she took her notebook with and... Yeah, and that happened.

Because grandpa was now saying something about "deficient brains" and "soft upbringing" and something else that made Jackie stand up with an angry sound and then for some reason Mommy was there, scolding Jackie for dragging Evelyn along and it kind of went downhill from there, and grandma was saying something, and there were guests talking in hushed voices...

And then they were in the car, and Mommy was at the wheel, just sitting there quietly.

And then she said:

"Anyone who wishes to vising their grandparents is welcome to. But you are doing it on your own, and you are definitely _not_ dragging Evie with you. Are we clear?"

"But, Mom..."

"No buts, Jackie," Mommy turned to look at them. "Next time you want to visit, you can go. I can't stop you. But don't you dare sneak out of babysitting this way. And never ever take Evelyn along."

Evelyn wanted to protest she was not a baby, but Mommy was already quite angry. So, she focused on seven-times-eight and tried to work out why it was sometimes fifty-four and sometimes fifty-six.

The phone rang.

"Yes. I have them. Of course, they were... I just arrived when dad was saying... No, no. You don't want to hear that. About Evie. Yep. Jackie is getting grounded. I'm still not sure whether it's just for a month or until she turns eighteen."

"Mom!"

####

2025-07-18, Pemberley

_But if you take away the Moon,_

_The Earth wobbles like a top_

_From zero to ninety, to zero to ninety degrees_

_And that wobbling, it would never stop._

"What are you listening to, Eve?"

Her niece scrunched her nose as she pressed STOP.

"Dunno. Some old music CDs were in that box uncle Will asked me to check and I was putting them with the others, but one wasn't closed properly, and the disk fell out. I was checking if it wasn't scratched. What is it, Aunt Liz? It sounds— interesting, but it's not like any band I've heard."

Elizabeth sat cross-legged next to Evelyn and took one of the earbuds, pressing PLAY on the sound system panel.

The song _was_ familiar, but she hadn't heard it in a long time.

And the box looked like that old case of CDs she had stashed... Yeah, right here, together with her old textbooks and some random selection of scientific journals she had once been very interested in.

And there was also a little songbook that matched the music she was listening to.

"Ah. It's 'To Touch The Stars'. It was printed... well, long ago. An album of songs about space exploration, written by many different authors and sang by completely different people. I think it was some kind of competition... Here, there is the booklet that came with the disk. There is an explanation somewhere inside. Anyway, if you like it, I can make a copy of the disk - or I'll just copy the mp3s to your phone?"

Evelyn nodded slowly, flipping through to the lyrics pages.

"Aunt Lizzy?" she said finally, looking up again. "What... Is it possible that the Moon will really move far away enough for Earth to start wobbling around as they say in this song?"

Elizabeth opened her mouth, aiming for a calming platitude, but the face she saw was not a kid scared of a fairytale catastrophe or an imaginary foe.

Evelyn was seriously distressed - but also very much not a little kid anymore, to be simply talked down or, even worse, lectured and then left alone to deal with expectations of her elders... Ah, no. That had been Elizabeth. And Mina, to a degree.

Evelyn, however, was right there, right then, with only Elizabeth to help her. And so, she actually had a chance to learn about the topic. And the ability, too, since once they had managed to get her through the once-dreaded times table and into actual applied maths (namely, physics), she had fallen in love with numbers.

"Yeah. Probably, though I'm not an astronomer. I don't have the right data for it, but I think it is possible. Not in the next few years, though. I mean, it says it's moving away about an inch and a half each year - so, like four centimetres? It will take years and years for it to go far enough for us not to be able to live here."

"But finally, it will happen, right? I mean, in hundreds and hundreds of years, it will escape, because it was never supposed to be here, and..."

Tiny, pink mouth trembled, turned into an unhappy bow.

"Could we tie it down? No, because it would have to stop moving, and it would fall. Can we somehow..."

"Evie, Evie. Stop. It's not going to escape now, or, or in the next hundred years. Humans will think of something. Maybe, you know, if Earth is no longer habitable, we will move to another planet, for example."

Evelyn frowned, and despite the seriousness of the situation, Lizzy smiled at the way the tiny nose scrunched up.

"Mars is no good, not enough water. And any other planet in the solar system is either toxic, a boiling mess, or a boiling mess of gasses. Or a frozen lump."

"Well..." Elizabeth bit her lip in thought. "There are still other solar systems out there. I'm sure by the time it gets as bad as the song says, we will have interstellar travel."

"B-but..."

"You know what? First, we'll search for scientific papers that will tell us what kind of prediction they give for the Moon leaving us, and then we'll do some casual research on the options of leaving this solar system behind us."

"What does this even mean?"

Elizabeth reached up to the higher shelf and pulled out a case of media crystals, looking for the right one.

"Your old aunt is still a member of the academia, so she has access to all kinds of STEM-related publications. I'm sure we can find something reasonably readable that calculates the risks and the potential escape rate of our only satellite. And then I'll introduce you to the hero of my teen years, Captain Samantha Carter of the Stargate Command."

"You want to read science papers and watch an old SF show with me?"

"Well, unless you have something else to do on this fabulously ugly and wet July day."

Evelyn frowned at the world outside - she had been planning to go to the gardens that day, after all, and Lizzy knew she would be disappointed when the weather had turned - but then nodded.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think we can do that. So... what is this show about?"

Elizabeth pulled her into a short hug and then up, and led her towards the big computer setup in the corner.

"Let's find that Moon data first and then I'll explain the idea of a Stargate."

She stopped in front of the computer and...

"No. First, I will show you an actual astronaut. Commander Chris Hadfield."

"Who?"

"Oh, baby. Come on. Let me play you a song that was recorded in the orbit."

####

2032-04-10, Pemberley

_And I don_ _’t mean to scare you,_

_But the Moon is still pulling away._

_(Remember I said it started at 14,000 miles_

_And it_ _’s 234,000 miles away from us today?)_

_When the Apollo mission went to the Moon,_

_They left reflectors there._

_They zapped them with laser beams_

_That zip right back to us through the air._

"Elizabeth Rosalinde Darcy!"

"Shit..."

William jerked up, looking at his wife, as she tried to unwind herself from an afghan she was stitching together. Whatever happened, Jane was angry at her beloved sister and that was a feat in itself.

Jane.

Angry.

At Elizabeth.

He quickly tried to guess what might have happened but came up empty - in fact, they hadn't heard from Jane in two weeks or so, so there had to be something...

"How could you!"

_Uh-oh._

Elizabeth winced as Jane slammed the door to the house open.

"Janey, what is..."

"Evelyn wants to join the Army Air Corps!"

_What the what?_

"Jan..."

"It's all your fault!"

_Wait a mom..._

"Jane, how is Evie's choice in any way my fault? I'm not..."

"She found an ad for an astronaut candidate program with AAC and now she says she wants to be a pilot and then to go to space. And. It's. All. Your. Fault."

_Ouch._

Evelyn had been spending quite a lot of time with Elizabeth, yes, especially ever since that summer when Mina and Rose were away for their little "girl trip" to Norway and Jane and Charles had gone house-hunting in Yokshire.

Evelyn had also changed a lot from the little adventurous elf that got into all kinds of trouble, grew up and became, to a significant surprise of many, nearly a mini-Elizabeth in many aspects. She was not much into crafts, preferring sports over sitting patiently putting together something made of fabric or paper, but with Lizzy’s support to get her over some rocky beginnings, she definitely fell in love with the sciences, and she ended up devouring textbooks much ahead of her standard level of schooling, learning to program from "Auntie Liz" and trying her hand at experiments both live and virtual. Sometimes it felt as if they had been granted a third daughter - with Jane and Charles' fair looks, but with the quirky mind of an analyst that neither Rose nor Mina had really displayed.

But this?

This was new.

"Jane, sit down," he said tiredly. "Sit down and explain what the hell is going on. I'm sure Elizabeth did not encourage Evie to join the Army, considering we already have family in the armed forces, and we know how bad it is to think of a loved one being at risk."

"She had shown her that old show, with a woman pilot who becomes a- a space explorer," Jane said bitterly. "And now Evelyn got it in her head that she has to be a pilot in order to become an astronaut. An astronaut! Britain doesn't even have a space program!"

"For one, showing 'Stargate' to anyone is not a guarantee they will march off into space, or I would have, and so would have Mina and Rose. She enjoyed the show and she enjoyed reading all the research about the Moon we could find. She was thirteen, Janey, and scared that the Moon is going to escape Earth orbit and leave our planet wobbling unstably, what was I supposed to do, tell her it's all a lie?"

"She... what?"

His sister-in-law flopped down on the sofa, suddenly, as if someone had loosened some strings keeping her upright.

"She heard a story - a song, to be specific - about Moon moving away from Earth and wanted me to explain it to her. Yes, I could have lied, but it is - was at the time - a scientific truth, so she would have heard about it from other sources. So, I did the calculations with her and we read papers about it - luckily it turned all to be rubbish - and then watched some SF. Including Stargate, Star Trek and Babylon 5. Sue me for showing a kid a few episodes of someone living in space. I've also lent her my Girl Genius comics and she hadn't become a mad scientist yet, correct?"

"B-but... my baby wants to join...!"

"She wants to be an astronaut, Janey," Elizabeth corrected softly. "Would you rather clip her wings and keep her down here, or let her soar?"

####

2037-03-06, Tadfield Base, British Space Program Training Centre

_So we know the Moon is moving away_

_At the rate of an inch and a half a year_

_Someday — I_ _’m not saying it’ll be soon —_

_But it just won_ _’t be the same down here._

_And there is talk of damming up the oceans_

_To slow the Moon_ _’s retreat._

_Or hijacking one of Jupiter_ _’s moons_

_(That would make one mean feat)._

"We're keeping our fingers crossed for you, Evie. And Aunt Lizzy is here, wanted to wish you good luck."

"Absolutely not," she heard a protest in the background, "Luck has nothing to do with that! Give me that phone!"

"Liz, get off me...!"

"Evie? Evie, darling, you are good. You don't need any stinking luck, you have your brain, you hear me? There is no such thing as luck when it comes to space travel."

"Yes, Aunt Lizzy. That's not how we deal with risk," she sniffed.

"Exactly. You have your brain and your skills, and you are a great pilot and you will ace this. We're all watching you from the hotel terrace."

"Thank you," she managed to choke out. "I mean it. I'm..."

"You, Evelyn Bingley, are the youngest person ever to fly solo. Remember, you are twenty-four! Valentina Tereshkova was twenty-six! You are beating the record set by the first woman in space!"

"I'm terrified...!"

"You are nervous, darling. And that's good. That makes you sharp. And it makes you smart and quick. You'll go up there, you'll make your pass over this planet and you will be the youngest astronaut ever. Do you hear me?"

"Yes, Aunt Lizzy."

She wouldn't cry, she couldn't cry, she wouldn't cry...

"And when you are back down here and you get time off from the base, there will be a chocolate bunny waiting for you..."

"AUNT LIZZY!"

####

2045-11-11, British sector, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan

_Europa is the moon of Jupiter they think_

_Could save our civilization._

_But who of us is brave enough to lead_

_Such a risky invasion?_

"Engines are a go."

"All checks green."

"Confirmation on launch parameters, we are a go."

"Pre-launch checks, round two, done."

"Pre-launch checks, round two, confirmed."

"Panels controls checks, done."

"Panels controls checks, confirmed."

"Commander?"

A tiny woman with a perky nose and an elfin smile nodded and her second in command switched the PA system on. The commander tapped the helmet mike and waited for all other sounds to die down.

"Evelyn Bingley here, everyone. Listen closely. We're a go in ten minutes, I repeat, ten minutes. The official launch countdown is visible on the screens in front of you, as of now. Now, I know that some people on the ground wish us luck, but we know better, don't we? Skills, knowledge, and sheer stubbornness are what we need - and what we all have. I trust you to depend on your brains and on each other. And... Thank you all for participating in this endeavour. Now, let's have some music."

Ever since the pioneering all-girl Japanese team that landed on Mars in 2038 had blasted off to the tune of, of all things, opening theme of "Sailor Moon", it had become the tradition for all female-led missions, no matter what country of origin, agency or mission objective, to begin their way upwards with an appropriate piece of music. There was very little understanding of this quirk amongst the male part of the community, but they wrote it down as 'that female thing' (conveniently forgetting about that one moustached ISS commander who sang 'Space Oddity' when in orbit) and suffered through the inevitable exposure to each particular commander's tastes and sense of humour.

From a song about Valentina Tereshkova (traditional for most of the Slavic bloc missions, led by women who on occasion still insisted on being called "cosmonauts"), to the "Star Wars Cantina", to music from "Star Trek" and other space operas, everything could happen.

Everyone waited to hear the choice of the commander of the newly minted British Explorational Space Ship "Samantha" with bated breath, as if it was almost more important to the future of their mission than the countdown and engines warm-up sequence happening in the background.

A whisper of a melodeclamation came over the PA system, disquieting and eerie.

_Have you ever wondered_

_What life would be like_

_If we had no Moon?_

_When you_ _’re on your way home,_

_Look up at the sky tonight and think,_

_“What if we had no Moon…?”_

"We have the last messages loaded and there is a priority message for you, commander."

_The Moon_ _’s gravity pull keeps the Earth’s tilt_

_At a constant twenty-three degrees,_

_Keeps our seasons stable_

_(We don_ _’t fry or freeze)._

_But if you take away the Moon,_

_The Earth wobbles like a top_

_From zero to ninety, to zero to ninety degrees_

_And that wobbling, it would never stop._

"Read the message aloud."

"Message: We love you, Evelyn. Kick some space butt for us. Signed: Mom, Dad, and everyone else. PS. We are watching, and Aunt Lizzy is crying."

Evelyn sniffed and only held back the tears by a sheer act of will.

_And so far, we just can_ _’t seem to find_

_Any other planets like our own._

_The latest theory states,_

_Indeed, we might just be alone,_

_The Garbo of the universe,_

_A solitary dot of blue._

_If the Moon is not responsible,_

_Then who?_

####

"For ones who just came out of several months of coma or found their way out of the Amazon jungle - you are just in time because today is a historical day. The first manned out of system space mission launches in seven minutes. Only seven minutes, ladies and gentlemen, and we will see our heroes leave this planet, nay, the Solar System, forever. There is a choice team working in this comparatively tiny craft and we can only say we are in sheer awe of their skills, preparation, and audacity. The mission is led by Captain Evelyn Bingley, who, at barely thirty-three, has beaten other candidates for that incredibly desirable spot and will be the one to mark the way for future generations to follow when they leave this planet, and indeed the Solar System. According to her mission statement, it is the implementation of her life-long dream of finding out if there is another place like Earth out there. She claims to be simply following and expanding on the achievements of the women before her - starting from Helen Sharman, or even Tereshkova - but I would posit that the first actual mission away from our system might just be a little bit more than simple 'following'. But that's just me being in awe of her outlook on life."

"It's incredible how that young woman managed to outclass the international competition... In every interview, she claims that her family's support is what got her to where she is now, and it is the most laudable sentiment one can hear in this cynical and bitter age of younger generation rebellion. She claims she had never had any of them try to detract her from her chosen path, even though it was not the most traditional one."

"It is also rather incredible since neither of her parents is anything close to an engineer - well, her father used to build ecological houses back in the day - and yet, she says it's their support that gave her the push. They must be rather remarkable--"

"She was playing 'If We Had No Moon'," another person interrupted. "Could this be a hint as to her motivation?"

"An interesting choice."

"A new one to the collection, definitely."

"Wonder what made her choose this."

"She loves this song. It's what gave her the idea to become an astronaut."

Everyone fell silent, turning to the source of these words - the journalist that, although theoretically moderating the panel, had remained nearly silent until now.

"Adele Bennet," the woman re-introduced herself, pointedly. "And now, can we maybe watch a bit more attentively as my little cousin leaves the before-mentioned solar system successfully?"

####

"Thirty."

Evelyn bit her lip as the last notes faded.

"Let's get this truck to where she is supposed to go," she grunted.

"Twenty-five."

"Commander?"

"Just talking to 'Samantha', Second."

"Twenty."

"She'll get us there, commander."

"She sure will. We'll touch the stars, Second."

"Fifteen."

"Final countdown, 'Samantha'," the control came over the comms.

"Countdown confirmed and visible on the main screen," Evelyn replied softly.

"Ten."


End file.
